Removal of hair (epilation) from various parts of the body for cosmetic, medical or other purposes is a routine practice. Hair on non-facial skin is usually removed by plucking, and various devices for such hair removal are known in the art.
As plucking of hair can be very painful, EP 0 348 862 A2 proposes an auxiliary skin cooling device for a hair-removing apparatus. The skin cooling device is designed to cool the skin during the removal of hair and thereby achieves an anaesthetizing effect. The described cooling device preferably comprises a heat-accumulating cooling element, such as a small compartment filled with a phase-changing liquid having a large heat capacity. The cooling element needs to be cooled before use, which is typically done by placing the cooling element or the entire hair-removing apparatus in a cold environment, for example, a freezer, and by leaving it there at least until the phase-changing liquid has frozen, or until the cooling element has reached a thermal equilibrium with the cold environment. When brought into contact with the skin, the pre-cooled cooling element absorbs heat, thereby cooling the skin.
However, the necessity of placing the cooling element in a cold environment before use involves a number of drawbacks. Placing the cooling element in a freezer reduces the space available for other items in the freezer. The cooling member must also be food-safe, which prevents a number of otherwise suitable substances from being used as cooling liquid. A major drawback is that the cooling member cannot be refrozen quickly when it defrosts during an extended epilation session. In fact, the cooling member must typically be stored in a freezer for several hours before it has reached a sufficiently low temperature. During a break of the epilation session, the cooling member has to be put back into a cold environment so as to prevent it from defrosting. Finally, a cold environment for cooling the cooling member is not always readily available to the user.
It is an object of the invention to provide means and methods that overcome these drawbacks.
This object is achieved by the features of the independent claims. Further specifications and preferred embodiments of the invention are stated in the dependent claims.